Paul Russell: Praise for the Post (but not for its ‘neo-con Zionist’ letters editor)

Praise for the Post (but not for its ‘neo-con Zionist’ letters editor

Some regular letter writers to the National Post have favourite topics, such as gun control, abortion, gay marriage or the Middle East. In Wednesday’s edition, we ran six letters about that latter subject. Most were penned by people with surnames that suggested they were Jewish (especially the fellow who identified himself as a rabbi). That package of letters brought in this note.

“With letters regarding the Holocaust, Israel and anti-Semitism, why don’t you ever publish ones from people with names like Homer Hockeybag, Boris Bison or Larry Lunchbucket?” asked Alex Doulis. “It seems more than coincidental that the same [Jewish] names pop up once a month. Perhaps an explanation is due your readers.”

Explanation granted: The writers in question wrote passionately expressed letters about the subject at hand, and passion is a common ingredient in good letters on any topic. That is why they were picked, not because of the writers’ names, or their religion. Obviously, Jewish readers generally exhibit a statistically disproportionate interest in the Middle East. But it is unfair to suggest that the “same names pop up once a month” among published letter writers commenting on Israel. Scores of writers send us notes each month about the Middle East, and we try to give a voice to as many readers as possible.

That said, we would love to hear what Larry Lunchbucket thinks of Israel, or any other subject.

— Those Wednesday letters about tensions in the Mideast also brought in some distasteful reactions from a handful of readers, all of whom declined to provide their real names and addresses.

“[Wednesday’s letters] echo neo-con Zionists who are itching to start a war with Iran,” an unnamed reader started off. “Just keep lying to your readers, but don’t forget — eventually we all pay the piper for our evil. And your evil is large enough to be expensive down the road.”

Another unnamed letter writer asked, “When are you going to publish real facts regarding Israel?” After making various unsubstantiated claims about the country, he stated that I would understand the true scale of Israel’s alleged evil only once I had “become a human being and not a neo-con Zionist.”

He ended his note as follows: “I hope you get some bad s–t cancer and die a horrible death.”

Passion is often a good thing in letters. Vitriolic hatred, however, is greeted with a quick stroke of the delete key.

— On May 18, the Post published an excerpt from Jan Wong’s new book, Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness. The excerpt (which, according to its headline, described “the spiral of depression she entered in 2006, after publishing an article linking the Dawson College shooting to Québécois racism”) seemed to polarize some readers.

“The decision to publicize the article by Jan Wong detailing the racist prejudice she had to endure is the reason why the National Post has become the most readable paper in Canada,” wrote J.E. Sequeir. “It is the only one that has not pandered to popular opinion when it appears to be de rigueur to do so; nor has the Post, unlike its competitors, jumped on every bandwagon of populism that passes by. This integrity makes for an enjoyable read.”

At the other end of the reader-reaction scale is this note from Douglas Sather: “The next time you idiots print anything from Jan Wong, I am cancelling my subscription.”

“Memo to copy editors: Once a tree has fallen, it is a log, not an 800-year-old cedar,” wrote Steve Weatherbe. “When a human dies, his remains are not described as, “an 80-year-old man.” Don’t be shills for the environmentalists, whose favourite tactic is to elevate some hapless life form to the status of ‘glamorous macrofauna’ or, in this case, macroflora, in order to advance the preservation of the surrounding territory. We are not talking about a life form. In the English language, it is a log. Valuable, but dead.”

— Last Saturday’s paper included a question-and-answer feature titled, “Cover-up hinted for Harper portrait.” That included a photo of a painting of Stephen Harper lounging in the nude, with the artist’s head blocking out any naughty bits. This reader said the publication of this photo was distasteful.

“Publishing Maggie Sutherland’s despicable and unoriginal graphic caricature of our prime minister is demeaning, tasteless and indicative of extremely poor judgment,” wrote David Nussbaum. “I refuse to support any media that would stoop to such a low level.”

— As noted last week, readers often comment on the word choices made by our writers. Here is another example, this time about Terence Corcoran’s Wednesday column, “Eggs on their Facebook,” which included a common expression.

“After Terence Corcoran stooped to employ the now trite phrase, ‘doubling down,’ I had to speak out,” wrote Warren Adamson. “After enduring months of exposure to a litany of ‘doubling down’ by an array of U.S. TV talking heads, and even from the U.S. president in his State of the Union address, I had hoped this jargon was only an Americanism.

“Until Wednesday, ‘doubling down’ seemed, thankfully, foreign to the Canadian literary intelligentsia,” Mr. Adamson continued. “Please, National Post, for the sake and preservation of the dignity of the English language, double down on banning the use of this offensive idiom. OMG! I just said it! The invasion has begun!”

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.